For the past 17 years the International Child Art Foundation has brought the power of the arts to children around the world to foster their creativity and develop empathy. Here are a few of the most interesting updates this month:
We invite you and your friends who have children aged 8- to 12 to participate in the 5th Arts Olympiad, our flagship program. The Arts Olympiad commences in schools with structured lesson plans that break down divides between artists and athletes by introducing students to the “Artist-Athlete Ideal” of the creative mind and healthy body. The program is free of charge for schools. The winners from about 1,000 school districts in the U.S. and nearly 100 countries will come together at the 5th World Children’s Festival in Washington, DC in June 2015.
We are glad to report that many schools across the U.S. are participating in the Arts Olympiad alongside our partner organizations from around the world, including recently the Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have also developed a partnership with the first private education group to enter China by opening the Canadian International School of Beijing in 1997: https://www.facebook.com/ICAF.org. We have a small office in Kanazawa which is organizing the Japan Arts Olympiad > http://japanicaf.org/. We have also updated our blog in Korean >http://blog.naver.com/icaficaf.
You will be pleased to know that the founder of the ICAF, Dr. Ishaq, was appointed by the United Nations as one of the judges who select the UN Slavery Memorial design, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon unveiled during the General Assembly session in September 2013: UN press release; a 7-minute UN video. We believe the design is worthy of its mission: an installation for the ages.
The book The Creativity Revolution: Reinvent your Creative Self to Shape the Future and Prosper by Dr. Ishaq has received some great reviews. We’re delighted to hear that Linda Naiman, noted expert on using the arts as a tool for transforming businesses, calls it “a compelling read,” praising the “original thinking about creativity through the lens of history, knowledge systems, philosophy, psychology, economics, spirituality and ethics.” Thanks, Linda!
One of our goals for the next year is to make creative education integral to coming educational reforms in the U.S. and worldwide. A 501(c)(3) non-profit, the ICAF is an independent organization that believes that every child is creative, and that as adults we are responsible for nurturing the innate creativity of children and their intrinsic empathy. Our most recent projections indicate that we can reach our goal of engaging 2 million children worldwide in the 5th Arts Olympiad, but we can’t do it alone. We need your continued support and creative ideas in 2014!
Faith Antonioni & the staff of the International Child Art Foundation
http://icaf.org/support/
InAEA 